Despite the virtues of Rudolf Kempe’s vibrant, persuasive 1965 BBC Mahler First, you have to wonder if its release will appeal to anyone other than hard core Kempe followers. To be specific, the mono sound and distant orchestral image create a rather drab aural impression, as do the not-quite-world-class BBC forces. However, Kempe’s live 1972 “Resurrection” was well worth preserving. His splendid Munich Philharmonic is more than up to the score’s myriad challenges, although the first and third movements seem temperamentally lightweight next to the gravity and dynamism conductors as different as Bernstein, Kubelik, Stokowski, and Klemperer brought to this music. Everything comes together in the finale, from the rapturous, soft woodwind passages and tight off-stage brass to the sensitive vocal soloists and the conductor’s ecstatic yet dignified way with the work’s final pages. The balances are sometimes askew, but the overall engineering is quite good for an archival broadcast tape. Not an essential release by any means, but at least Kempe’s admirers can hear him in two major works he did not otherwise record.
